Member review

The story of Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), told through his perspective in this piece of a dramatic biographical masterpiece, brought together by Director, Julian Schnabel. It is easily visible how much thought and pride Schnabel had for the story itself, he even learned French specifically.The film is created by the incident where Jean-Do occurs a massive stroke leaving him almost completely paralysed. It is only his left eye that works and this is how he must live out the rest of his life. Being shown through Jean-Do’s perspective, we explore his memories as well as his present, where the contrast in emotion is really shown, being a man to ‘a vegetable’, you can only now see what you really leave behind. We see what holds him down, in his ‘diving bell’ and what makes him feel free, in his ‘butterfly’.I really don't want to say anymore, I do not want to spoil the experience which I had myself, and saying that you can see how extraordinary this film is.

The film is very well casted as Mathieu Amalric is really the one thing that holds it all together, most of his acting in the film is to tell us something and is superbly done. However from past performances in such as ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ and ‘Quantum of Solace,’ it was no surprise his performance was fantastic again. Also in these films he plays the underlying character, he is the character to create a situation for the story to resolve it, as he does in here in ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ but here he is his own enemy.

The camera work in the film is remarkably done as everything we see through his eyes, is accurate, the thought that has gone into such a simplistic thing, of where he is looking, really conducts the whole aspect together.

Personally, I was really surprised how much I enjoyed the film, the fact that it is so stripped to basics makes it especially easy to relate to. However, this is not a film I would recommend to everyone. The only way I can describe the film is ‘laid back’. This film will never get you at the edge of your seat and if that is what you are looking for don't even bother glancing at this film, just sit back relax and let his film work your mind. As I said the film is stripped to basics and film about a man that can only move his left eye doesn't sound the most exciting, however, we do not see the man that can only move one eye, we see the man he was before and this is where the story gains some character. The story told non-chronologically due to recaps of his past life where we get to learn the man that was editor of Elle. However I personally found it easy to follow and I doubt anyone wouldn’t, despite how jumbled it is, its very well put together as a whole.

There's not a film I can compare this too, it's unique, it really discovers a new aspect to what a film can be. And this is the reason why it's so well received by the audience, there is nothing like it.